Category Archives: Sentences vary when kids die in hot cars

Kevin Kelly a Virginia father is spared a lengthy prison sentence after he leaves his daughter in a sweltering hot car for seven hours; the poor 21 month old baby girl had been dead for at least four hours before she was discovered in the backseat by a neighbor.He claims it was unintentional, that he had just forgotten her.Yet in 2004, Tara Maynor was sentenced to 12 1/2 to 60 years in prison on two counts of second degree murder after leaving her two children in a car for four hours outside a suburban Detroit hair salon while she got a massage and new hairdo. She told police she was “too stupid to know they would die.”Just last month, Karla Edwards pleaded guilty in South Carolina, to homicide by child abuse for leaving her 15-month-old son, Zachary, in a car for nine hours in April 2006 while she worked at a home improvement store. When Edwards couldn’t or wouldn’t explain her actions, she was sentenced to 20 years.

I understand that these two ladies actually left their children on purpose and that is the reason for their long sentences, yet I just refuse to believe that you can leave a baby for seven whole hours and claim you forgot.This wasn’t a child that was of an age that she could have been playing alone for hours, this was a toddler who like all toddlers wants to hang out with mom or dad for hours at a time.I don’t know if he left her on purpose because he needed a break or if he left her to get something done THEN forgot about her.Either way I feel he should pay the same price as these other two idiots.I don’t believe that judges should be lenient one day and tough another, because there are still other cases of kids being left by accident and the parents or caregiver had the book thrown at them, so why this man is getting off light, I will never understand.

Apparently the court feels that mothers should be held to a higher standard as men, which is totally bogus.Why do dads get to be forgetful while the mothers are neglectful?This type of thing is common sense for everyone not just mothers.It seems to me that Ms. Edwards who left her child in the car to work might have had daycare problems, I have heard many cases like this one but still not an excuse, but Ms. Maynor what can you say to her except agree with her own assessment that she is extremely stupid and also not an excuse, and sorry no excuse for Mr. Kelly as well.These people treated their poor children as if they were as disposable as the diapers that were on their tiny butts.Anyone who is dumb enough to leave their child (who is too young to care for themselves) unattended especially in a smoldering hot car, should pay the maximum price for their crime.A crime that is exactly what it is, not an accident, not forgetfulness and it’s damn sure not excusable.